Marked for Marius Moustapha
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Mar 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Hassane Boudina, 33, rolls back the years — 8.10
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.10 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Aziz Sabiri in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Mohamed Hasnaoui falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match13 Mar 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Adam Adoum: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Mahamat Abba knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mahamat Abba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mahamat Mbaiguedem did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad9 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Mohamed Hasnaoui falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. Mahamat Mbaiguedem has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match7 Nov 2026
A 2‑0 win over AS DGSSIE, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market9 Nov 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Djibrine Mbaiguedem has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market9 Nov 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Moussa Tokindang has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marius Moustapha commits to Gazelle for another 3 years.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
7.84, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Gazelle had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Gazelle may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match31 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Gazelle's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Gazelle has to find a result from somewhere.
Match31 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Gazelle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Hasnaoui is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match31 Oct 2026
No clean sheets in sight for Gazelle
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad2 Nov 2026
29 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Adam Adoum left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad2 Nov 2026
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Mohamed Hasnaoui for 21 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Gazelle will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Osée Natoyoum was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 24 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 4 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Market12 Oct 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Saleh Mbainaissem is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market12 Oct 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marius Moustapha is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad12 Oct 2026
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Gazelle will not keep him by pretending otherwise.